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The employer-employee relationship in the Thai sex industry is examined.

Economists Tugan and Baranowsky theorized that economic crises due to underconsumption will not occur since capitalists will continue to invest in capital goods or machines to make more machines. The phenomena of assets increasing in value despite questionable intrinsic utility was described as a 'bubble.' Bubbles happen when individuals invest in assets in the hope of selling at increased prices to other individuals with the same intentions. While bubbles may give rise to periodic booms and crashes, they help remove inefficiency from an economy.

This study examines the relationship between commercial sex workers and their employers using the results of interviews with 83 commercial sex workers from 35 establishments in the Bangkok area. The intentions were to gain insight into the motivations and working conditions of the workers and to see whether the nature of the employment relation gives support to the mainstream economic theory of "implicit contracts" concerning labour exchanges that occur in a risky world. Despite the existence of obvious risks (e.g. contracting HIV/AIDS) there is little evidence of risk-sharing implicit contracts. This could in part be explained by the ignorance of risks shown by commercial sex workers. But even where, in the case of the poorest prostitutes, there is apparent evidence of risk-sharing, it is argued that this is better explained in terms of a theory of debt-bondage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses Tugan-Baranowsky's `bubble' regarding the possibility of underconsumption crises in the background of a Marxist criticism. Introduction, background and details of Tugan's `bubble' and conventional `bubbles'; Its implications for contemporary economists; Implications of Marx's theory of crises for Tugan's theory; Marxist assumptions regarding capitalists and consumption.